


what's in a name

by seeingrightly



Category: Check Please! (Webcomic)
Genre: Fluff, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-03-19
Updated: 2015-03-19
Packaged: 2018-03-18 14:11:07
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 426
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3572549
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seeingrightly/pseuds/seeingrightly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Eric Bittle doesn’t know it, but the first time Jack Zimmermann calls him Bitty is when he gets checked, when Jack gets distracted from watching his stick send the puck into the net by the sight of Bittle leaving the ice entirely, the sight of Bittle landing hard, the sight of Bittle’s helmet rolling to a stop.</p>
<p>“Bitty,” he says, and he means <i>I’m sorry</i>.</p>
            </blockquote>





	what's in a name

Eric Bittle doesn’t know it, but the first time Jack Zimmermann calls him Bitty is when he gets checked, when Jack gets distracted from watching his stick send the puck into the net by the sight of Bittle leaving the ice entirely, the sight of Bittle landing hard, the sight of Bittle’s helmet rolling to a stop.

“Bitty,” he says, and he means _I’m sorry_.

-

The first time Jack calls him Bits, he doesn’t even realize it til he notices Bitty’s widened eyes, the tiny little gasp he does in the back of his throat sometimes, the one that’s usually accompanied by one of his hands coming up to clutch at invisible pearls or something.

They’re just hanging out in the kitchen, Jack working on his thesis to the sounds of stirring and Betsy groaning and Beyoncé on the tiny speakers and a bunch of people yelling at the television in the other room. The noise doesn’t bother him. Bitty’s absent-minded dancing doesn’t bother him, but it does distract him.

Bitty spins around with the mixing bowl on his hip, looking for something, and catches Jack looking at him.

“What?” Bitty says, starting to smile.

Jack shakes his head and turns back to his laptop.

“Nothing,” he says.

“You chirp me to my face or you don’t do it at all, Jack Zimmermann,” Bitty says, pointing a wooden spoon at him.

Jack eyes it out of the corner of his eye, wonders if it’ll come any closer to his laptop if he doesn’t give in.

“Okay,” Jack says, putting his hands up in surrender, and once the spoon disappears from his periphery he adds, “I was just admiring your moves, eh, Bits.”

It takes a second for him to register the sound, to look up just in time to catch Bitty recovering, dropping his hand from his throat and darting his widened eyes away for a moment.

Jack looks away quickly, his ears feeling warm.

-

Bitty puts his hands on either side of Jack’s head and leans up toward him and Jack thinks, _no_.

“Wait,” he says, and Bitty freezes, his eyes going wide as he hovers awkwardly on his tip-toes.

“Um,” Jack says, and Bitty drops to flat feet, but Jack grabs his hands and keeps them in place.

“I, um,” Jack says, “can I call you Eric?”

“I - what?” Bitty says. “Yes? It’s - my name? You can if you - if you want to?”

“Okay,” Jack says. “Eric.”

“Okay,” Eric says, maybe a little mocking but still sweet. “Jack.”

Jack smiles, and so does Eric.

 

**Author's Note:**

> find me on tumblr at [professorwolfjwolf](http://professorwolfjwolf.tumblr.com/html/).


End file.
